Ukraine refugees – Lord Harrington to appear before Levelling-Up Committee on Homes for Ukraine concerns

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• Inquiry: Ukraine refugee scheme
• Levelling Up, Housing and Communities  Committee

The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee has also published today correspondence from Lord Harrington following a series of letters (on 4 May and also on 24 May) from Clive Betts, Chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee.

The correspondence from Clive Betts raised a series of questions concerning problems with the operation of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, including delays in criminal records checks for UK hosts and of accounts of Ukrainian refugees being forced into temporary accommodation such as B&Bs.

See further information below on LUHC Committee follow-up on support for Ukrainian refugees and previous correspondence to Lord Harrington on these issues.

Chair's comment

Clive Betts, Chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee, said: “As a Committee, we continue to have concerns about how the Homes for Ukraine scheme is operating in practice, about the funding available to help local councils support refugees, and about the latest alarming data which points to the numbers of Ukrainians who have arrived in the UK and find themselves homeless after their initial place fell through or family members could not host them.

“We welcome the opportunity to put these questions to Lord Harrington and pressing the Minister on the Government’s support for the Ukrainian refugee schemes, not least the Government’s wrong-headed approach in refusing to allow people to move between the schemes, despite many people offering to host still not having been matched with refugees.”

Witnesses    

Wednesay 29 June 2022

From 10am

•  Lord Richard Harrington, Minister for Refugees, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Home Office

Background – LUHC Committee follow-up on support for Ukrainian refugees

The letter (24th May) from Clive Betts, LUHC Committee Chair, raised a series of questions relating to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) criminal record checks and accommodation checks, the sharing of data information with councils, and the prospect of a light-touch regime around accommodation checks to help bring Ukrainian refugees to safety in the UK as quickly as possible. 

This followed previous correspondence to Lord Harrington (4th May) expressing “significant concerns” about support for Ukrainian refugees and for local authorities and which asked for responses to a series of questions relating to the matching of refugees with potential hosts, funding for local authorities, the sharing of data with local councils, and longer-term considerations for supporting refugees in the UK. 

Clive Betts also raised concerns relating to support for Ukraine refugees in correspondence (19th April) to Lord Harrington, Minister for Refugees, on these issues. Lord Harrington’s reply (27th April) is available here.  

Lord Harrington appeared before the LUHC Committee on Wednesday 30 March. On Wednesday 30 March, Clive Betts also posed questions to the Prime Minister at the Liaison Committee (questions 54-57) on the Government’s support for Ukrainian refugees, with the Prime Minister committing to examining the case for extra funding for local councils to help support refugees arriving under the family scheme. 

Lord Harrington responded (on 29 March) to questions raised in correspondence (22 March) from Clive Betts, LUHC Chair, on a range of issues relating to the advice, guidance, administration and co-ordination of the scheme and the support available to local councils to provide services including school places.  

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